In The Cyber Cafe

Did you hear them say that MJ's doctor was not a suspect. The whole thing sounded very suspicious and my early warning system went off. Have you observed what i see. People will say one thing when in reality its the other. Now they are talking of civil and criminal dimensions. We are inside the church now; Pastor dey talk in own and most times its just because the church cannot afford to buy him an expensive car so he is criticizing others who have. Now we are back to the office, a colleague of mine unceremoniously resigned and left to another job; the top management felt her office mate knew about it. Then the supervisor said that he too will soon be going and told us all and we doubted. The guy in question denied such a thing but am not convinced.

The last few weeks has been quite eventful. We had strikes by majority of the federal civil servants demanding payment of arrears at which the government decided to pay 50% of it immediately amounting to N40billion. The remaining 50% is to be paid in 2010. The government then announced an amnesty program for militants to which N50billion was approved. All the university workers then went on strike for what government suspected was demand for increase in salary. In the midst of the confusion, the militants struck for the first time in Lagos causing some no small drama. Some people under the aegis of Yoruba council of elders wanted to add some ethnic coloration but renowned Nobel laureate put a stop to such madness with his outspoken statement as the affected atlas cove oil facility belongs to the entire country. The federal government then issued an ultimatum to the Lagos state government which is by far the most progressive government in the country to revert back to only God knows what or face the music. This time around the entire nation except some people in the ruling party stood up and condemned the actions of the federal government who have not been able to do half of what Fashola has done. The Oba of Lagos led other traditional rulers from that axis to throw their support behind their action governor. Its like Yar Adua just woke up from sleep and he reversed the decision by the former government to upgrade the petroleum training institute at effurun to a university of petroleum which had so far cost N250million. The wise men in Abuja then approved N14.5billion to upgrade the college of petroleum in kaduna to the university of petroleum. Some days back the "Bokom Haram" attempted to invade a police station in the bauchi metropolis sparking up a religious crises that quickly spread to yobe and borno states resulting in the death within 48 hours of over 200 people. Security personnel in kano, kaduna, jos and even our "neutral" FCT were put on red alert as some form of spill overs were anticipated. The governors of the south south have withdrawn their support for the amnesty programme of Yar Adua insisting that the university of petroleum be brought back to effurun. In all of this our president is in Brazil on a very important state visit.

The strike by the university workers has reduced our patronage drastically as majority of the students have gone home. Public electricity has become worse forcing us to service the few customers using our diesel generator. Just when you think the worse has happened the ISP starts acting up causing us to declare a "force majeur". Cafe management decided to suspend operations for a week in the first instance pending when all network issues will be solved. I want to believe that its not easy doing business anywhere but the challenges in Nigeria are enormous and the starting point is public infrastructure.

Now I had decided to be absent without any reason but then the guy saw me that early morning and asked when will I be leaving. I decided to speak like a politician that I had some things to tidy before I go out for the day. He then asked if he will see me at the venue to which I replied no. He said why not and I replied personal reasons to which he now asked what they were. I told him that we can talk about that some other time and then he asked is it that you won't be at today's meeting or you won't be a part of the committee of friends? Now that was like putting a goat in the corner in which case there is nothing else left to be done than go on the offensive; the rest they say is now history.

The Nigerian media is the immediate beneficiary of the crisis in our banking sector. There is an increase in the demand for news and the media is just having a field day. A lot of their headlines is just the same old wine put in a new bottle. Instead of them to up the ante by going into the field to gather news, they sit in their offices and fantasize. Their headlines are most times misleading. 5 banks have so far been found wanting and 3 of their CEO's are supposedly in EFCC custody since then (i find that hard to believe) then a paper screams that 2 more have been arrested. Naturally you'd expect its the remaining 2 but on further observation you see its just 2 subsidiary MD's that were arrested. The other time it was reported how 1 of the 2 tried to flee via a private jet but now its clear she has simply disappeared into thin air. The other was said to have escaped to London when in actual sense he just came back. There are still some reasonable ones though but majority are fast becoming a rumor mill or is it soft sell?

Business at the cybercafe has been quite impacted by the strike with few clients. The motorcyclist transporters too have also been affected. The other day as i was going home that was how they accosted me. Now they leave their machines in the bus stop and work along the road to solicit for customers. Another impact is boredom, these days when i don't reach the cybercafe we form a local town hall joint and just be chatting. Sometimes some one comes and buys us biscuits, pepper soup and drinks. The other day i was the one to declare with bananas and groundnut. This break has really afforded me to interact socially with my immediate neighbors. Rumors have started flying about different universities calling off their strike but its all lies.

About 3 weeks ago i noticed that my eyes kept opening by midnight and then closing by 3 in the morning but i did not mind. In any case there seemed to be NEPA at those odd hours so i might as well do some reading. Lately my eyes open by 3am and want to close by 6am and am not finding it funny at all. NEPA by the way has since disappeared altogether so there is no reason to be awake. I did subscribe for all night browsing before but now its obvious that was a wrong decision. Its still raining in Port Harcourt and the public universities are closed. My decision to marry a working class lady took a blow over the weekend when a friend lost her job. I have always insisted that working class ladies are generally more responsible. It appears the financial service sector led by the banks have started sacking lots of staff in view of the global recession they claim. My advice would have been to cut salaries down instead and maintain existing staff while suspending further recruitment exercises.

I have discovered a relationship between hereditary and snoring. Discovered this the other day and on further inquiries found out that her siblings and dad snore. There was a spectacular robbery in my compound some days back. We all agree that its someone that knows them from outside the compound that did it. The two of em gals got blackberry and one nokia e series phones which they flaunt at least one of them is always doing facebook. They live upstairs in the other block next to mine. Now i never some people sleep so deeply and that with the lights on. These robbers used a ladder to climb the wall and then went to the front net where they cut it and saw the a handset at the other far end of the room howbeit it was her small nokia 1100. They had a dust packer tied to a very long stick which they sent through the protector as the window was opened. They then went to the next room and tore the net only to find the window closed. They now went to the back of the block and put the ladder on the wall and then supported it to the upstairs window, they tore the kitchen net first then the corridor net and took the 1100 that was being charged. In all of this, my neighbor no even wake; luckily for her she is not the type of girl that sleeps loosely.

That the roads in Port Harcourt are bad is no longer news. What i found as news is the fact that across the country even at oturkpo where a colleague visited its still the same thing. No road, no electricity, total decay. Ran into a demonstration by taxi men at the Rumuokoro junction. The council authorities increased the park levy from 200 to 400 yet they refuse to repair the small portion of bad road just in front. The experience was very unpleasant not with rain falling and passengers every where. I was soaked to my skin, upset and very disoriented; the masses are really suffering.

Did i tell you of my criminally minded cousins and their mother? Oh well you can also add their non resident father. Now the story goes like this my mother has a junior sister who is the only other child of her own mother. This lady had an affair which was blessed with a girl then she married a man against the general family opinion. This man was up to no good from the beginning but he produced like 7 children with the second being a boy. After the extended family gave him a job with the defunct Nigeria Airways and a house in Lagos he ran of with another woman and had other children. This my aunt did not go to school and is a an admin staff in one government hospital in Delta state. She believes that for her children to progress in life they must study medicine; she forgets that brain get different levels of assimilation. It so happens that all her children have brains in the lower levels. Two of her girls already have had children outside marriage which is not new as she herself started it. Now the eldest girl used to leave with us but ran away to open a hotel in Akwa Ibom state. Her son who is a product of an affair with a married customs officer now retired leaves permanently with my parents.

Now her siblings have at one point tried to enter the university where my parents work but could not make it into medicine due to low jamb scores plus low post ume scores. Infact it is the latest attempt that is the subject of the current drama. She got a 4th year medical student to write for her by her side in the examination. This same dude also wrote JAMB for her using the same tactics. This same dude wrote for her senior sister last year and some how it went undetected and the senior sister is now in pharmacy. Its interesting to note that the senior sister did a one year remedial program which led to her admission in Agriculture Economics which she started and then went back to this plan and is now in Pharmacy. In any case the junior sister was caught and her "machine" arrested and handed over to the police. Later she was arrested but escaped from the police station. The police angry at her escape proceeded to arrest her senior sister who arranged the machine.

The mom shows up and even has the audacity to come to our house. She accuses my dad of seizing her daughters paper in the exam hall and then having her arrested by the police. The news has gone around the in law family that my dad does not want the progress of this criminally minded people. This is indeed the mindset of the average Nigerian and they are many in number, in any case they get to bribe the police with N25000 to get the girl released and the mom goes home. Later the "father" calls my mom to say the paper must be marked and i smile. Its really my mom's fault and i tell her that where it to be me, neither the children, nor their mother will have any access to my house or anything that has to do with me. Their senior sisters son who stays with us permanently also wrote the exam. We hope that this criminal minded behavior is not in the blood. This last sister did the remedial program for medicine and failed, my mom whose name is "christmas" advised her to repeat the program again and even paid the school fees for her only for her to refill medicine again and she failed yet again. My mom then used her influence to move her to computer science department where she is a level 100 student yet she still wants to do "medicine". Her sister in Pharmacy is definitely going to fail out after this year and then it will be back to square 1. Both of them are wasting their lives going round in circles but that is the plight of the greedy poor.

On the morning of October 1, yours truly was sitting down outside at the "village square" when one chap came along to preach to us. Now being the gentle type i decided to listen since at what he had to say. The other people used style to leave one by one and he tried not to notice. At the end he took my phone number and promised to keep in touch. It so turns out he is urhobo and he was quite excited at my name. The other evening my friend came to relax with me and we were playing some video game when a knock sounded out the door. Now i thought that is was my neighbor who saw us walking inside and had promised to join and discuss some topical issues. It turns out to be "pastor efe", oh well then i say to myself let him come in and sit down. No sooner than he sits down he tells us that we have to stop our game and give him his respect as a pastor that he wont take much of our time. Its a long time i felt a sudden rush of blood to the head but as usual the automatic response system took over so i just chilled. His prayer and short message were as evil as they were criminal. He was praying to God that i will not fall into the pit my enemies dug for me, that i will be strong and that those in government will remember me. Later after the prayer he talked of Abak - that beautiful town and how he wants to do crusades there. He lied that Abak has the most number of churches in the whole of is it Africa. I have since told him never to come to my house or call my gsm number.

So many things are being done wrong this days and its really not supposed to be. One of my directors buried his mother and provided transportation for people to attend; this is besides the refreshment. Things that should be simple we have made them quite complex. My neighbor who did a marriage ceremony had to accommodate so many people in his one bedroom and even had a friend accommodate excess visitors. There was so much pressure to attend the ceremonies but in the end i resisted in other to drive home a point. My estate people were so shocked at my action and the bridegroom really felt very bad. There is a precedent though which i explained to him so that he does not take it personal.

Just when i thought we were about to enter dry season then we have this rain that comes from no where. First day in the office and am so not very glad to be back. There is this bad feeling that seems to come from no where even though everyone is chattering excitedly. I remember now that my tummy was running but can that be the reason. The cleaners were really kept busy as the complex was so dirty due to the inactivity of about 3 months plus. The electricity kept going on and off and at a point the generator had to be switched on though only for 2 hours. The truth be told the local environment can be so discouraging. Its so easy to sit down and start lamenting the evils that plague the entire system or should it be a case of do as the Romans do when in Rome.

Is it my eyes or reality? I could have sworn that some of my journal postings have been deleted. Did i not tell you guys about that weekend when the university community experienced the worst form of violence. The chief security officer was killed in "mysterious" circumstances right there in the administrative campus on a Saturday evening.  The next day; Sunday evening a block of shops in the commercial campus got burnt to the ground leaving many in tears. My "friend" finally got married to that catholic girl despite his fathers "over my dead body" stance; in any case she was 4 months pregnant. Now both of them are "believers" and her word "i got him wrapped round my little finger" finally prevailed against the old man. Got so discouraged along the line - its like the end justifies the means but God is God.

Since our strike its become imperative that more time be spent physically in the cybercafe than before. We had to re-engage the services of a former employee who was now unemployed as a result of the fire outbreak which destroyed an entire shopping block. It was not an easy decision though but justified in the long - run for strategic reasons. My schedule was increased to give me some time in the cafe operations department and there i was when my estate sister flashed. I had already started closing down formalities so it was not much of a distraction that i called back suspecting that there might be some security information perhaps armed robbers were in the home area. That was not to be the case as she was just asking where i was that i should come back bla bla bla. Me started wondering but then these girls always have some surprises; needless to say she just wanted some company.